Skip to main content

Distributed for Scheidegger & Spiess

Hermann Obrist

Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900

Distributed for Scheidegger & Spiess

Hermann Obrist

Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900

Art historians regard Hermann Obrist (1863–1927) as one of the most influential founders and visionaries of the art nouveau movement in Germany. His diverse oeuvre includes tapestries, ceramics, furniture designs, metal work, and sculptures including monuments and fountains. Hermann Obrist: Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900 presents for the first time in English the entire scope of Obrist’s work.

            This vibrantly illustrated volume presents exemplary work from each period of Obrist’s career. In addition to the illustrations, the book includes essays by expert critics who investigate Obrist’s ideas and concepts, the inspirations for abstract designs that he derived from natural forms and phenomena, and his plans for tombs and monuments. Though many of Obrist’s designs for fountains were unrealized and the majority of his tombs and monuments have been destroyed, this comprehensive volume documents the entire collection of plaster models and photographs for both unrealized and destroyed sculpture work.

            Created to accompany exhibitions at the Museum Bellerive in Zurich and at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Hermann Obrist: Sculpture, Space, Abstraction around 1900 is an informative collection that will fascinate scholars and historians of the art nouveau movement.


240 pages | 260 color plates and halftones | 8 x 10 | © 2009

Art: Art--General Studies


Scheidegger & Spiess image

View all books from Scheidegger & Spiess

Table of Contents

Foreword
Biography
First Princples for a Fragmented Oeuvre: Introduction
Vital Force as Leitmotif: Nature Processes and Design in Obrist’s Language of Forms
Fire in Black and White: Natural History Illustrations and the Role of Perceptual Psychology in Hermann Obrist’s Work
A Happy Life: A Biography of the Artist, Naturalist and Independent Spirit
Ornamental Sculptures: Hermann Obrist and Henry van de Velde in Dialogue
Hermann Obrist and Photography: Between 1900 and 1914
Symbolic Reminscences of Nature: Grave Monuments by Hermann Obrist - Between Sculpture and Architecture
Appendix

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press